Unions, gov’t friends again

Cambridge Times

Upon first glance, it might seem as though everything is rosy again in the sandbox with the public teachers’ unions and the Liberal government. Then upon closer inspection, one wonders if it’s wishful thinking, politicking, naivety, or all of the above.

Ontario’s new premier Kathleen Wynne is looking to regain trust by developing a new negotiating process moving forward, but she’s also been clear that there’s no more money for teachers and she won’t be renegotiating contracts that resulted in a temporary pay freeze and reductions to sick day benefits. She says “good process” can lead us forward, that a “bad one” got us here.

But it was Wynne, along with the rest of the same Liberals, who voted in favour of Bill 115. How the government and unions can be so blindly trustful and have the blatant audacity to come out and rekindle faith in each other reveals just more of the same from both sides of this equation that only care about themselves and don’t care who they hurt in the process of getting what they want – political power and a pay raise.

Some teachers are going back to extra-curriculars, other are not. The Tories, meanwhile, would like to expand the wage freeze in the broader public sector and make extra-curriculars mandatory for teachers outside their core responsibilities in the classroom.

Right now, the lines between the government, the teachers’ unions and the teachers themselves seem awfully blurry, but they’re certainly emerging much clearer at Queen’s Park.